What is the right amount of stress for cleaning? There are both positive and negative effects of stress. The benefits of working under pressure can be great, but it’s easy to overdo it.
Learn how to manage stress and anxiety before they overwhelm you.
Finding the right balance can give you an edge on running your cleaning business.
Listen: The Right Amount of Stress for Cleaning
Watch: The Right Amount of Stress for Cleaning
Hey there, I’m Angela Brown, and this is Ask a House Cleaner. This is a show where you get to ask a house cleaning question, and I get to help you find an answer. You can find this and 400 other answered questions in this series on our YouTube channel.
What is the Right Amount of Stress?
What is the right amount of stress to run a cleaning business? Now, it is stressful to be a business owner. It is very stressful, and you will probably never have a moment where there is not some kind of stress in your business.
But maybe if you take a step back and look at what stress is will allow you to find a balance. Stress is the driving factor that actually inspires you to do your best work. But if you have too much stress, it’s going to overwhelm you, and it’s going to deplete your energy. And if you don’t have enough stress, you’re not going to be motivated to take action.
There’s a Different Right Amount for Everyone
There’s the right amount and that right amount is actually different for every person. So, try to focus on not eliminating the stress but managing the stress. So, the very first thing that to do is get plenty of sleep every night.
And you say, “What does sleep have to do with stress?” It resets your electrical systems. So, if you’re really tired and you’re fatigued and you’re trying to make smart business choices, it’s not going to happen. When we are exhausted and we are so tired, we say stupid things, we do stupid things, and it has long-term effects on our business.
So, get plenty of sleep so that you can make smart business decisions. That’s going to help you be smart in your decisions that are going to help eliminate some of the stupid stuff you did that caused stress.
Plan Your Day to Manage Stress
Then the next thing that’s important about managing stress is to plan your day. Now, it’s easy to say, “Well, I have a schedule. I’ll just get up, and I’ll just go to the customer’s job.”
No. That’s only part of your plan. The other part of your plan is what happens before in the morning part of your day. Now, if we work a 40-hour week, in 168 hours in a week we still have 128 hours for ourselves if we work a 40-hour week for our customers.
So, try to plan the other 128 hours of your week. So that means get up early, exercise, spend some time meditating, be focused on what it is that’s important to your business.
The Morning is the Best Time to Be Productive
The next thing to do in your business is in the morning part of the day if that’s your most productive time, is to do the biggest tasks of your day.
So maybe it means you get up super early and you do the difficult stuff, which is your bookkeeping, marketing or your social media.
You’re going to do that at the top of your day. And if you’re a night person, you’re going to do it at the other end of the clock. So, you’re going to use your prime hours to do the biggest stuff for you.
You Should Plan Inventory the Night Before
Also, back to planning your day. That means making sure that your inventory for your cleaning supplies is done the night before so that when you wake up in the morning you’re not rushed, and you’re not stressed out.
That’s where the stress comes in. It’s because we’re unprepared. You want to be prepared and know all of your cleaning supplies are there. If you run out of cleaning supplies you had plenty of time the night before to refill your supplies, to restock everything. You’re good to go, so it reduces stress.
Leave Plenty of Time to Get to the Job Early
Make sure that you leave plenty of time in the morning to get to the job early. Even if you have to sit in your car and check your messages or be on social media before you get to the customer’s house.
But be at the customer’s house when your start time begins. Don’t be racing dangerously through traffic because that raises your blood pressure, and that increases stress not reduces it.
Lay Your Clothes Out the Night Before
Then the next thing is to lay your clothes out the night before. This sounds super easy, but it becomes easy. If you wear the same uniform every day, and you have the same shoes, same socks, same underwear, same clothes, same hairpieces, same everything, it’s all easy to clean and waiting for you.
It eliminates the morning stress of, “Are my clothes clean? Do I have the stuff that I need? Where’s this? Where’s that?” Extra stress. So, eliminate that by preparing and laying your clothes out the night before.
You can even pack your lunch the night before. You wake up in the morning, take your shower, do your morning stuff. You put on your uniform. You go get your prepared lunch. You get your prepared cleaning caddies. You go get in the car. You leave at a predestined time. You arrive at the customer’s house in plenty of time. Your day is already off to a rocking start. So, there are a few things that you can do in the business that set you up for success.
You Have to Believe in Yourself
Now, the last thing as far as stress reducers are is that you have to believe in yourself. This reduces a lot of stress because we are our own worst critics, and we are our own worst enemies.
So, it’s easy to imagine you’re not doing a good enough job and to be stressed out that maybe the customer is not happy with you. Or maybe your boss is not happy with you. Or maybe one of your coworkers thinks you’re not doing a very good job or whatever.
We have a tendency to project our fears onto other people coming back at us.
Tell Yourself You’re Proud of Who You are
So, one way to reduce that stress is every time you walk by a mirror, look in the mirror and go like, “Hey, there. I’m proud of you, and you’re doing a great job.” Now, I know it sounds very arrogant and very egotistical, and you don’t have to say it out loud, but just looking into the mirror you see the person that’s in there.
You have to be your biggest cheerleader. You have to be your biggest fan. So, every time you walk by a mirror and you see that person, do a silent thumbs up like, “Hey, you got this. I’m on your side. You got this.”
Be your own cheerleader because that will reduce the stress and the need for approval from outside people. Believe in yourself, and it will reduce the stress of you worrying about what other people are thinking.
Resources
These good karma links connect you to Amazon.com and affiliated sites that offer products or services that relate to today’s show.
I Can’t Take It Anymore: How to Manage Stress So It Doesn’t Manage You – https://amzn.to/2RGrNpd
Stress Management Techniques for the Chronically-Stressed: How to Manage Stress – https://amzn.to/2INYiha
Stress Management: Techniques on How to Deal with Stress and Anxiety – https://amzn.to/2A3oa62
How to Manage Stress: How to Deal with Stress and Live the Good Life – https://amzn.to/2yb9S20
Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers: The Acclaimed Guide to Stress, Stress-Related Diseases, and Coping – https://amzn.to/2IPGD95
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